Refrigerator.



H. H. PIPER'.

BEFRIGERATOR.

APPucmoN man SEPT. s, 191e.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

n: ga. Namlmm H. H. PIPER.

REFRIGERATOR.

APPLLCATION FILED SEPT 5.1916.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

TED AFS .AENT FFIQE,

HERBERT H. PIPER, OF JACKSON, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR T0 THE PIIPER COOLING AND PRESERVING COMPANY, OF JACKSON, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

REFRIGERATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 293, 1918.

Application filed September 5, 1916. Serial No. 118,375. l

this specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved refrigerator which will operate with or without ice, and which (when ice is not available) will operate with' a' chemical cooling means, or with cool water alone, when the chemicals cannot be readily procured for use in it.

In the drawings: V

Figure 1 is a front-elevation of my improved refrigerator, with its cooling-chamber door partially opened;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of same, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a top plan-view of the same, with the cover or door of the chemical-chamber removed; i

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section of the same, taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is an elevation of the front side of the internal door of the cooling-chamber, detached; and

Fig. 6 is a horizontal detail-section taken on the line 6 6 of Fig. 5, through the thermometer and its sight-window.

The numeral 1 designates the outer nonheat conducting casing of the refrigerator, which may be made of wood or metal and provided with the usual non-heat conducting filling` or packing.

Within the casing 1 is located a sheet# metal lining 2, which, in the present instance, forms the outer wall of a cooling chamber 3, as well as the walls of a chemicalchamber 4, the said cooling-chamber being located in the lower part of said casing and the said chemical-chamber being arranged above the said cooling-chamber, in the upper portion of the said casing.

The said cooling-chamber 3, and the chemical-chamber 4, are provided with common.

doors 5 and 6, respectively, fitted with the usual hinges and latches or handles, and which doors are made with non-heat conducting` walls for an obvious purpose, and both doors have an inner wall of metal.

Within said chemical-chamber 4 are located upon brackets or shelves 7, and arranged inthe form of steps overlapping the adjacent ones, a series of receptacles, as follows:

A water-tank 8, located near the top of the said chemical chamber; a chemical tank 9,

`located in a plane immediately below said water-tank; another chemical-tank 10 located in a plane immediatelv below that of the said first-mentioned chemical tank 9; and a cooled-solution tank 11 located in aI plane immediately below that of the said chemical-tank 10.

ihe said water-tank 8 is fitted with a suitable common faucet 19, whereby the water contained therein mav be delivered directly upon the top of a body of a chemical 13, which (in the present instance) is nitrate of potassium in compressed block or brick form of a size to just ill the said tank 9.

The said chemical-tank 9 is fitted with a common faucet 14. whereby the solution from `the said chemical-tank 9 is delivered directly upon the top of a block or brick of carbonate of vsodium l5 contained in the chemicaltank 10.

The said chemical-tank 10 is fitted with a common valve or faucet 16, whereby the concentrated solution will be delivered into said cooled-solution .tank 11.

From the said cooled-solution tank 11 the cooled solution of chemicals flows down a vertical pipe 17 into the upper portion of the cooling-liquid circulating-space 18 formed between the outer wall 2 and the inner wall -which there is formed a cooling-liquid :cir-

culating-space on the vertical sides, the bot las tom, the back, and the top, of the said cooling-chamber.

A drain-cock and its pipe 21 are connected to the base of the said circulating-space, to draw olf the warm solution, and permit the space to be occupied by cooler solution, as well as for the purpose of cleaning the said space, when required.

A vertical vent-pipe 22, through which the odors of the articles being cooled may pass upwardly into the said chemical-chamber, ext-ends from the cooling-chamber top to a point near the top of the said chemicalchamber, and communicates with the interior of the upper portion of both of said chambers for the purpose of acting as a draft-inducer o1: chimney for said vapors.

The front side of the said cooling-chem ber 3 is provided with a double-walled door 23, between the walls of which may be located a non-heat conducting body of air or other common substance.

In the present case the front and rear walls of the inner door 23 of the system are separated by an airespace, and a common thermometer 24; is fixed upon the front side of said rear wall, as shown in Fig. 5, so that 'its bulb 25 extends into an opening 26 formed in said wall, and is thereby exposed directlyto the air within the said coolingchamber, in order to indicate correctly the temperature of said chamber during operation of the refrigerator.

A sight-opening 27, for permitting the thermometer to be readily observed from the exterior of said inner door 23, is cut in the outer wall of said door, at about the center of its front, and a sheet of mica or glass 28 is fixed in suitable slides or mountings 29 upon the inner surface of the said inner wall of the said door 23.

The said inner door 28 of the system is provided with commonhinges and a suitable latch 31.

The operation of my improved refrigerator is as follows:

The preferred chemicals used in the said chemical-tanks 9 and l0 are as follows:

VNitrate of potassium and carbonate of sodium, in equal parts by weight.

The water contained in the said watertank 8 is permitted to trickle from the said faucet 12 down upon, and to dissolve a portion of the chemical brick or block 13, with the result that the solution thus formed is cooled to a certain extent depending upon the strength of said solution; then the next lower faucet 14 is opened and the cool solution from said chemical tank 9 is permitted to run down upon, and to dissolve, a portion (or all) of the said chemical brick or block 15 contained in the next lower Chemical-tank 10 of the system, with the result that the augmented solution in the tank 10 vis still further cooled ,Land thenthe faucet 1,6 of

the said lowermost chemical-tank 10 is opened, and the doubly-cooled solution is permitted to run down into the said cooledsolution tank 11, whence it passes to the said circulating-space (or tank) surround ing the said cooling-chamber 3 of the refrigerator, until said space is entirely (or partially) filled with the said cooled solution, with the result that the said coolingchamber will be cooled to a sufiicient degree to act eiiiciently and satisfactorily to cool and preserve the contents of the said coolingchamber, even in the hottest weather.

The solution from the said solution-tank 11, in its passage to the said tank or circulating-space of the cooling-chamber, is regulated by turning the valve-handle 19, from the exterior of the refrigerator, either to partially cut off the flow, or to entirely stop the. same, as desired, and as indicated by an inspection of the said thermometer 211.

By the use of the step arrangement of tanks, as above described, I am enabled to make the chemicals last much longer, and

operate more efficiently, than if they were at once dissolved in a single tank of water.

The operation of the remaining parts of my refrigerator is so obvious that further Vdescription of the same is unnecessary, and

will not be given.

Instead of nitrate of potassium and carbonate of sodium I may use any known equivalent chemicals in the chemical tanks, either in brick or block form, or pulverized, or loose; or I may place in both (or all) of said tanks the same chemical, although I have found by practical use that the resultant solution will not then be cooled to as low a temperature as it would be if both of said tanks were supplied with dierent chemicals, as previously specified. Y

In localities where ice is plentiful and cheap, the same may readily be used in my refrigerator, by placing the ice in the chemical-tanks 9 and 10, aswell as in the Water-tank 8 and the solution-tank 11, with the obivousresult that said ice will gradually melt and the resultant coolwater will be fed to the circulating-space ofthe cooling-chamber, and cool the contents of said chamber.

In other localities, where ice is scarce and there is asufiicient supply of cold water, the latter may be placed (by any known means) in the said tanks 8, 9, 10` and 11, and allowed to run intothe circulating-space of the said cooling chamber, with an obvious result.

I claim as my invention, the following, to-wit:

An improved refrigerator, having a suitable outer case,`a door for saidouter case, a cooling-chamber havingdouble metallic walls forming a space between them for the circulation of acooling liquid therein, a

dcliubleffwalled door; for. affording .access to the said cooling-chamber, and a series of tanks arranged in different 'planes in step form Within said case,'a11 in a plane above that of the said cooling-chamber, in combi- 5 nation With suitable Valves or faucets located above and arranged to discharge upon the top of bodies of chemicals in the next tank below7 and means for regulating the flow of a cooling-liquid from said series of stepped-tanks into the space surrounding 10 said cooling-chamber.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

HERBERT H. PIPER. Witnesses:

CLARA L. PRATT, HENRY L. HIcDoN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patente,

Washington, D. G. 

